Nikorn” assesses the timeline of the referendum law draft to be ready for use by the end of 2024, in line with the referendum calendar to amend the constitution in February 2025. He believes “Paethongtarn” will stick to the referendum questions and amend the constitution as before.
Mr. Nikorn Chamnong, former spokesman of the committee to consider the study of the referendum approach to solve the problem of different opinions on the 2017 Constitution, gave an interview after the House of Representatives approved the draft of the Referendum Act, amended version, regarding the criteria for passing the referendum with a two-tier majority vote, that the next step will be to enter the Senate meeting, initially expected to be next week, and he believes that there will be no problems with the details. Therefore, when the Senate passes, it will follow the steps to promulgate it as law by the end of 2024 and can move forward to hold a referendum to amend the Constitution in February 2025, which is the same period as
the local elections.
Mr. Nikorn continued that before the former committee studied the referendum approach, they presented the results of the study to the Cabinet, Mr. Settha Thavisin, the former Prime Minister, along with questions, which the Cabinet resolved to proceed, starting with amending the Referendum Act first. Therefore, in the next step, the Cabinet of Ms. Paethongtarn Shinawatra, the Prime Minister, must consider how to proceed. Initially, the Prime Minister can review the questions that set the conditions not to amend Sections 1 and 2 that were previously proposed, according to the policy of the new government that is preparing to announce to the parliament. However, he personally believes that it may not change because the coalition parties have previously expressed their position, and the Pheu Thai Party has announced its loyalty to the institution. –
Source: Thai News Agency